FFXII: Chase in the Night
by MeGoNuts
Summary: A chase in the night is only the beginning. The sky of Ivalice wouldn't be such an empty place to roam anymore as a new sky pirate suddenly appears in Balthier's everyday life... (OC, rating may change)
1. Chapter 1

**MeGoNuts****:**

**FFXII: Chase in the Night**

**Chapter 1**

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A tall, brunette man walked forward in a confident manner.

"You have something that belongs to me", he said while making a 'give it to me' gesture with his left hand, tilting two of his fingers towards himself.

"I don't think so", a woman said cheekily, bending her head all the way back, exposing her throat, and looking at him arrogantly. "Come and get it, if you think you can keep up."

The woman rushed to a speedy sprint away from the man. The man sighed.

"I don't have time for this...", he complained as he chased after the woman.

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><p>The hot night air of Rabanastre was humid: a thunderstorm was making its way from the desert. Still, the sky was clear for now and only the full moon and stars played witness to the shadow rushing on the rooftops of the city. A constant clank of metal was heard as the woman ran, rushed and leaped between buildings like a cat. If someone would have paid attention, they would have seen another figure going after the first one.<p>

"You could just save the both of us from the trouble and stop already", the man said to the woman running before him. She apparently heard him as her running came to a halt and she turned to face him. The man also stopped, a good twenty meters away from her.

"You keep up pretty well. Congratulations, you have managed to exceed my expectations regarding the average stamina of a sky pirate", she said without even a blink and a piercing stare. The moonlight shone on her long, long wavy, dark red hair and twinkled as the light hit her hair accessories. Her pose was an arrogant one again, one with her head pulled back, back slightly arched and playing with the stolen artifact with her right hand, right in front of the person she had stolen it from.

"And _you_ have just proved me that a sky pirate can be a hell more arrogant that I had earlier believed", the man said with a slight tilt of his head and a _tchk_. "I don't have time for this game of one-sided tag, so you'd better give up now or I will have to put a less than nice end to it."

The woman smirked, bending towards the man, brought a finger to her mouth like a 'shhh'-gesture and winked. "In that case, I have the less than nice honor to tell you that I'm in a playful mood."

The man grimaced and intended to catch the woman for real now. The only problem was that every movement he made took at least twice the time it usually took, all movement look hazy in his eyes and the woman had already fled beyond his sight before he had managed to take even one full steps.

"That little-", the man cursed as he realized what had happened. She had inflicted him with Slow and Immobilize without him realising fast enough.

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><p>The woman had gone on her merry way, leaving the man suffer from her magicks. Still, she wouldn't have that much time before the effect would wear off: her magicks weren't that strong.<p>

After a dozen minutes there still was no sign of her chaser. She sighed disappointedly. "So this is all you were good for, huh..."

Soon enough she was almost out of town. She was in front of the Aerodrome as she gazed at the object she had stolen. "Wonder if this'll even get me a bread..", she mumbled with furrowed brows and a pouty face. The lump of _something_ didn't look too valuable.

"Didn't make it that far, eh, _thief_?"

The woman got startled. Her chaser had caught up to her.

"And _someone_ has finally realized the meaning of being_ sneaky_", she smirked. There hadn't been a single heardable sound of him approaching. His feet levitated a bit above the ground.

"Enough with the games already", the man said with a serious face and pointed a shotgun-like weapon at her.

She sighed, contently this time. She smiled and whisked the stolen object back to its rightful owner.

"I've had enough fun for today. Thanks though", she said and disappeared into the night of the desert.

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><p><span><strong>Author's notes:<strong>** Something new this time :) Late night drabblings before bed, hope you like it! ^3^**


	2. Chapter 2

**MeGoNuts****:**

**FFXII: A Chase in the Night**

**Chapter 2**

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It had already been a while since the encounter with the red-headed _thief. _Two months, in fact. Unfortunately, for Balthier, she had disappeared into thin air after that night. He kept telling himself not to let it bother him but her attitude had awakened his interest. And not finding her when he tried hurt his pride as a proficient sky pirate.

Balthier and Fran had arrived in Balfonheim Port and were walking towards the Quayside Court. The man really needed a drink to ease his frustration and Fran had gotten enough of teasing him about the thief, so she accompanied him silently.

The last thing Balthier expected to find at the hazy open-air bar was the dark red-haired, arrogant bastard of a woman he had been searching for the last two months drinking leisurely by the bar counter. This time the lighting was way better than the starry and clear night sky of Rabanastre, so Balthier got a proper look at her appearance.

Her ruby-colored mass of wavy hair was clearly an eyecatcher, reaching all the way to her lower back. On top of her head was a golden hair accessory, like a string, and from it hung coin-like round objects which flickered as light hit them. She wore a short white cotton shirt with puffy sleeves. The shirt exposed a great amount of her pale stomach, ending just below her chest. She had a pair of brown pants, worn-out and well used on many adventures, by the look of it, and a pair of almost knee-high boots covered his feet. There were metal heels on them, and Balthier remembered the sound of them clackin against the ground all too well. The mere flashback almost had a vein pop on his forehead. He snarled at the woman.

"You", he said calmly, but with poison dripping from it.

Her head turned abruptly, a bit too quick actually. She was clearly on edge for some reason. Her demeanor relaxed, though, as she saw the handsome sky pirate.

"Oh look who's here! Came to bring your treasures voluntarily this time?" she said confidently. The game was on again, apparently.

Balthier just tsk'd, took the seat beside her and ordered a double whiskey. He was a gentleman, sure, but _this goddamn woman_ just made him see red. Literally, in fact. Her hair was pretty much the reddest of hairs he had seen.

"In your dreams, brat." Gosh, she made him act like a child.

She was just about to make a witty reply, but she froze completely as she looked to the entrance. With lightning speed she left her seat and rushed to the terrace, pushing people from her way. The Empire Guards who had entered went straight after her when they saw her. Balthier had instinctly went after her. She wasn't gonna get away now.

She leaped down from the terrace, looking over her shoulder for just a second, locking eyes with Balthier and then jumped off. The brunette was about to leap after her until he saw what was underneath. Just ocean and no sign of her. The guards swarmed at the railing, shouting at each other and they left the bar as quickly as they had entered with their armors clanking and clunking.

Balthier's shoulders slumped a bit as he returned to his seat. Fran had stayed there and there was a double whiskey waiting for him.

"She escaped again, correct?" Fran asked simply. Balthier just sighed. "You know it."

'_Damn her.'_

"What has she done this time to deserve a proper patrol after her?" the viera said absentmindedly.

"Who knows. Something stupid, I bet."

"Something extreme at least to have Empire Guards come here, of all places."

Their next meeting would be a lot sooner than two months.

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><p>There wasn't too much to do at Quayside, so the two decided to leave pretty early. The sun was setting, tinting everything with warm yellows and reds and the merchants were packing up for the day. It wasn't safe to stay in one place for too long, so they were heading back to the <em>Strahl<em>. Strangely, the whole Aerodrome was swarmed with Empire Guards.

"Goddamnit, a quarantine", Balthier said silently to Fran. The two slipped among the crowds, finally getting to the ship platforms. The pair sneaked their way to the _Strahl_ successfully and they were ready to take off. Unfortunately, some guards saw they were taking off.

"Halt! This Aerodrome is under quarantine on behalf of the Em-"

The rest of his voice was overpowered by the sound of _Strahl_'s engines. Like a tiny quarantine would hold Balthier the Skypirate back. It turns out a quarantine wasn't the thing holding him back. He saw a flash of dark, bright red few platforms away.

'_It can't be-'_

"Wait! Wait waitwait!" a female voice shouted and the red-headed thief ran towards the _Strahl._ A bunch of guards were after her and they were closing in on her.

"Absolutely unbelieveable", Balthier groaned and sunk his face in his hands. "Well, I can't ignore a damsel in distress", he mumbled as he got up, leaving the steering to Fran. He opened the door to the ship, clothes and hair and everything else storming around in the whirlwind of the engines.

"Hurry up brat!" Balthier shouted to her, holding onto the doorframe with one hand and extending the other outside.

The redhead burst out laughing mid-sprint, the guards almost catching her. She pushed away the last pair of guards and prepared to jump. It would have been impossible to simply jump to the _Strahl_ at that point from that distance: they were already flying 20 meters away from the platform. But she cast Float at just the right time to give her jump extra thrust. She looked like she was flying, her body looked like it was being pulled and she kept on flying and flying and flying and Balthier got entranced by her floating hair and bright eyes and flashy smirk and-

THUMP!

The thief landed right on top of Balthier, making the both of them tumble on the floor and the whole airship wobble a bit. She was still laughing and lying on top of him and then Balthier's bedazzlement was broken like shattered glass.

"Get off of me, won't you?" Balthier said in an annoyed tone. "It's already enough for you to delay our departure", he said as he got up and brushed dust off of his clothes.

"You okay over there?" Fran asked from the cockpit as the _Strahl_ was making its way to the vast skies of Ivalice.

"Yeah, we're fine", the man shouted as he finally shut the door.

Why did he even end up saving the annoying thief? Balthier had no idea. He sighed.

'_This won't be the end of this, I suppose...'_

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><p><strong>Author's notes: This fic has haunted me since I wrote the first drabble, like, a year ago? Two years ago? Anywho, I believe I can keep on with this fic now that I have some kind of plot in mind :'D I don't really like OC fics and I try to write this as little Mary-Sueish as possible, and I'm sorry if this seems like one A''. I WILL NOT INSTANTLY SHIP HIM WITH BALTHIER, but maybe at some point in the story there might be some sparks... My main goal is to build an interesting relationship between the two and see where it leads :D Hope you like it! ^^<strong>

**Stay tuned!**


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